Guide
How do crypto payments work?
A crypto payment is a transfer on a public network to an address the recipient controls. Accepting one as a business adds a layer around that transfer: an invoice that says how much and where, detection that notices the transfer, a wait for the network to make it final, and a message to your systems when it is. This page walks that path as Unheld runs it.
What is a crypto payment?
A transaction on a blockchain that moves an amount of a cryptocurrency — a coin such as ETH or a token such as USDC — from the payer’s address to the recipient’s. Once the network has included it in a block or a ledger and enough further blocks have followed, it is final: there is no chargeback and no reversal. Accepting cryptocurrency as payment means publishing an address, being told when money lands on it, and knowing when that landing is final.
The invoice names the amount, the network and the address
Each payment starts as an invoice: an exact amount in one asset on one network, and an address to pay it to. Unheld derives that address from the merchant’s own wallet — the merchant holds the keys, Unheld holds only the public part — so the invoice is also a promise that the money arrives where only the merchant can spend it. The payer sees the amount, the network and the address on a hosted page, pays from any wallet, and the network fee is theirs.
Detection: the payment is seen
Unheld watches every address it has issued. When a transfer to one appears — in a block, or on Bitcoin in the mempool before a block — the invoice shows the payment as detected with the amount received so far. Detected is not paid: a transaction can still be dropped or replaced until the network has built enough blocks on top of it.
Confirmations: the network makes it final
Each network has a confirmation depth Unheld waits for, set per network and stamped on the invoice when it is created. While the depth builds the payment is confirming; when it is reached the invoice is paid and the goods can be released. The depth and the time it usually takes are on each network’s confirmations page, read from the network’s own documentation.
The webhook tells your systems
When the invoice changes state, Unheld sends a signed webhook to the merchant’s endpoint with the invoice, the transaction hash and the amount. The merchant’s order system marks the order paid from that message, not from a screenshot and not from the payer’s word.
Which cryptocurrency is best for payments?
For a business that prices in dollars, a dollar-pegged stablecoin such as USDC or USDT removes the exchange-rate question: the invoice amount is the amount received. Which network to accept it on is a separate choice — fees and confirmation times differ — and the stablecoin page and the network-fee pages lay those out from live data rather than opinion.
Questions about crypto payments
What is crypto payments, in one sentence?
A transfer of a cryptocurrency on a public network to an address the recipient controls, final once the network has confirmed it, with no chargeback.
How can I accept cryptocurrency as payment?
Create a wallet you control, issue an invoice for each sale that names the amount, the asset, the network and an address derived from that wallet, and let a gateway watch the address and tell your order system when the payment is confirmed. Unheld does the watching and the telling; the how-to guide walks the setup.
Is a detected payment the same as a paid one?
No. Detected means the transfer has been seen; paid means the network has confirmed it to the depth the invoice requires. Releasing goods on a detected payment is the expensive mistake.
Who holds the money?
With a non-custodial gateway, the merchant, from the moment it lands: the address is derived from their own wallet. A custodial gateway receives the payment and pays the merchant out later.